Weather Monitoring Protocol for the Long-term Ecological Monitoring Program at Denali National Park and Preserve

Denali National Park and Preserve is located in the central Alaska Range, approximately 210 km southwest of Fairbanks, Alaska. Methodology: Data are collected and stored electronically at all sites in Rock Creek except for the NWS Coop site at park headquarters, where they are recorded manually each morning at 0800 hours. At the Air Quality site, a Belfort weighing rain gauge records precipitation continuously on a weekly strip chart, and a Campbell Scientific 21X data logger is used to collect and store snow water content data from a snow pillow.

All other data collected at this site are stored hourly on a SumX SX445 datalogger which can be polled remotely via telephone line. Campbell Scientific 21X Microloggers are used for data collection at each of the six stations established in the Rock Creek drainage in 1993. Measurements are taken at 60 second intervals and are reported hourly (soil and snow temperatures were sampled every 15 minutes and averaged hourly).

Data are stored on-site in storage modules which are periodically exchanged: data are then uploaded from the storage modules to a computer at park headquarters.